TRENDICATORS BEST PRACTICES REPORT HELPING MANAGERS … · underlies the survey results. Figure 4 shows that survey results serve the purpose of educating and informing management

TRENDICATORS BEST PRACTICES REPORT

HELPING MANAGERS TAKE ACTION ON SURVEY RESULTS

Employees with managers who take action on survey results are

TWICE AS LIKELY to recommend their organization

as a great place to work.

SOURCE: 2018 Trendicators Survey Report by Engage2Excel, What Do Employees Think About Engagement Surveys

INTRODUCTION

Helping Managers Take Action on Survey Results 1 © COPYRIGHT 2018 ENGAGE2EXCEL, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Employee surveys are used by organizations throughout the

world, typically to drive change and improve engagement

and retention. Giving employees a voice is seen as a ‘‘good

thing to do,’’ but too often, the managerial response to the

findings is ‘‘so what?’’

The ideas presented here are based on my book “Strategic

Employee Surveys” (Wiley, 2010) and drawn from my

extensive experience in supporting organizations in almost

all major industries in most major economies around the

world. Best practice advice is also provided from a survey

of 31 HR practitioners who manage employee surveys within

their organizations.

Typically, 20 percent of the total survey effort falls into

planning, developing and administering the actual survey

and reporting the results. The remaining 80 percent of the

effort expended by the organization falls into the survey

follow-up.

Strategically, the results are used to influence executive

decision making and to create, when needed, change across

the organization. At a more basic level, and in employee-

centric organizations, the survey exists for no other reason

than to ensure that the employee voice is heard.

Our purpose here is not to provide a step-by-step guide, but

to provide organizations with a framework for how to think

about survey follow-up and action planning.

Jack Wiley

Chief Scientific Officer

Engage2Excel

Jack Wiley is an author, consultant, researcher and instructor. For over three decades, he has focused on two big research questions: what employees most want and what organizational factors best promote employee engagement, performance confidence and business success.

This publication presents a framework for

HR practitioners to use in helping leadership teams

and managers translate the results of employee

engagement surveys into meaningful

organizational change.

Strategic Employee Survey Framework

Understanding why your organization wants

to conduct an employee survey is critical to

the creation of the right survey. The Strategic

Employee Survey Framework (Figure 1) helps

organizations understand exactly where they sit

on the continuum — from “defense” to “offense.”

Using this framework can significantly enhance

the success of employee survey programs. A

major implication of the model is that achieving

a specific purpose requires survey content

designed for or tailored to that strategic objective.

The employee survey questions that best predict

customer satisfaction and loyalty, for example, are

very different from those that best predict where

employees will be most susceptible to union

organizing attempts.

The Seven-Step Model for Survey Feedback and Action Planning

A structured process makes it easier for

organizations to manage survey follow-up,

feedback and action planning. The seven-step

model presented in Figure 2 was developed by

Jack Wiley to help an organization know where

it is starting and where it is headed. The easy-

to-follow process has been used by hundreds

of organizations to achieve objectives for

organizational improvement. The model applies

the fundamental philosophies of organizational

development to employee survey methodology. Helping Managers Take Action on Survey Results 2

Organizations generally conduct surveys for four, sometimes overlapping, reasons. These reasons exist

along a continuum from "defensive" to "offensive" reasons. Starting with the most defensive reason,

the four reasons are as follows:

1. To identify warning signs of trouble within the organization

2. To evaluate the effectiveness of specific programs, policies and initiatives

3. To gauge the organization's status or strength as an employer of choice among its workforce

4. To predict and drive organizational outcomes, including customer satisfaction and business performance

SURVEYFEEDBACK

ACTIONPLANNING

Step 1: Understand Results

Step 2: Establish Priorities

Step 3: Communicate Results and Priorities

Step 5: Generate Recommendations

Step 6: Develop and Implement Action Plans

Step 7: Monitor Progress

Step 4: Clarify Priorities

OVERVIEW

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 2

DRIVE HIGH PERFORMANCELeading Indicators

EMPLOYER OF CHOICEEngagement & Retention

PROGRAM EVALUATIONPolicy & Initiatives

WARNING INDICATORSEthics & Safety

OFFENSE

DEFENSE

Before an organization or a manager of an

individual unit can effectively communicate survey

results and take action, there needs to

be an understanding of what the results reveal.

Discovering Strengths and Opportunities

The basic idea is to arrive at an understanding

of the organization’s strengths and opportunities

for improvement. In some cases, this

understanding may come through a presentation

provided by a subject matter survey expert, either

internal or external to the organization. In other

cases, individual managers are responsible for

reviewing the result for their own department

or organizational unit and drawing the proper

conclusions.

Guidelines or formulas can be used to define

strengths and opportunities for improvement.

As shown in Figure 3, survey items with Favorable

scores of 70 percent or more and Unfavorable

scores of 20 percent or less are generally

considered Strengths. Survey items with Favorable

scores of 50 percent or less and Unfavorable

scores of 20 percent or more are generally

considered opportunities for improvement.

Often, normative data — in the best cases, industry

or best practices normative comparisons — are

available to help place survey results into context.

Although normative comparisons are often viewed

as highly valuable, the best point of comparison

is historical survey results. Trend lines indicate

whether a specific organization is making progress,

standing still or declining.

Although there is no substitute for a thorough

analysis of survey results, in developing an

understanding of what survey results reveal, the

real focus should be on the pattern of the data

and the total picture they create. Organizations

can waste precious time and energy when they

overanalyze results and focus on organizational,

normative or even trend compari sons of minor

consequence.

UNDERSTANDING SURVEY RESULTS

1

Helping Managers Take Action on Survey Results 3

Organizations can waste precious time and

energy when they overanalyze results.

FIGURE 3

Identifying Strengths and Opportunities for Improvement

FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE

STRENGTHS

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT

AND

AND

70% OR MORE

50% OR LESS

20% OR LESS

20% OR MORE

ESTABLISHING PRIORITIES

Helping Managers Take Action on Survey Results 4

2

Many organizations make the mistake of trying to

work on too many priorities. This mistake is based

on the myth that employees expect action on

every critical issue that emerges from the survey

results. They do not. What employees do expect

is that their organization will respond to a few

of the more important issues. At the managerial

level, those issues are the priorities that managers

have control over, not policy-level issues, such as

the benefits the organization may offer.

One of the biggest pitfalls in effective survey

follow-up processes is hav ing too many priorities

on which to work. Obviously, organizational

resources are finite. Organizations whose follow-

up efforts focus on a short list of priorities

are usually more satisfied with the follow-

up outcomes than those that have a longer

nonprioritized list. Therefore, it is critical to focus

on the survey-based priorities deemed to be of

greatest consequence. Establishing priorities by

choosing a strength to maintain and one or two

opportunities to improve helps balance actions

for improvement by focusing on positive and

negative results.

Guidelines for establishing priorities:

• At the total organizational level, a facilitator

can lead an executive team through a guided

discussion aimed at establishing alignment

within the group regarding the top priorities

that emerge from the survey results.

• When an organization is focused on a particular

index, for example, employee engagement,

the organization can use statistical techniques,

such as correlation, regression or even relative

weights analysis, to help establish key priorities

for follow-up. Identifying the correlates of a key

measure illuminates the most important areas

for follow-up.

• At the department- or organizational-unit level,

managers can establish priorities after studying

their own reports of survey results. They may

also do this after reviewing and discussing the

results with other managers in their unit.

• In some organizations that place a high priority

on employee involvement in establishing

priorities, management can create a list of four

to five potential pri orities and invite employees

to shorten that list. Management then reviews

and approves the final list of priorities.

BEST PRACTICE ADVICE: FOLLOW UP

“Keep it simple, and don’t set too many expectations. Give them a simple process

to identify opportunities, and ask for one or two main objectives for the year. Also give

them an outlet to roll up items that should be addressed at higher levels.”

One of the biggest pitfalls in effective survey

follow-up processes is hav ing too many

priorities on which to work.

Helping Managers Take Action on Survey Resultse 5

COMMUNICATING RESULTS & PRIORITIES

3

Survey results should be communicated to

employees as soon as practicable after the results

become available. Ideally, results are presented to

the leadership team of an organization, who then

establish a short list of survey-based priorities for

action planning.

Memo to Employees: A company-wide memo

from the top leadership of the organization

(preferably from the CEO) should include the

following:

• Thanks for their participation in the survey process

• The survey response rate

• A short list of major strengths and opportunities for improvement

• If available, a brief reference to trend results

• Priorities the leadership team has established

• How employees will be involved in survey feedback and action planning processes

Managers receiving reports of survey results for

their own organizational unit have an important

communication responsibility. Providing individual

managers with reports of survey results is

equivalent to that manager having a responsibility

to provide the feedback results to employees

and involve them in developing responsive

action plans.

Guidelines for conducting feedback sessions with employees:

• Employees should see the feedback and

action planning process as part of how the

organization normally conducts business, versus

creating entirely new communication processes.

• Match the presentations of results to the

audience and the appropriate level of detail.

Most employees are satisfied with a summary of

the overall results and more detailed information

on the priorities for follow-up.

• Begin presentations of results with the positive

findings and ease into discussions of negative

findings with topics that are less controversial.

• Know the audience and anticipate reactions.

For example, managers may need to discuss

how employees view the manager’s own

performance. Sensitive issues should be handled

with a willingness to listen nondefensively. A

defensive reaction can stifle further dialogue.

BEST PRACTICE ADVICE: EXECUTIVE SPONSORSHIP

“Senior leaders have to be the role models for survey action planning.

Managers need to see that there is a benefit from making positive changes

to the work environment based on survey feedback.”

Helping Managers Take Action on Survey Results 6

CLARIFYING PRIORITIES

4

It is essential to involve employees in clarifying

priorities by letting them tell you why they

answered the survey questions the way they did.

This dialogue is critical to understanding what

underlies the survey results.

Figure 4 shows that survey results serve the

purpose of educating and informing management

regarding what employees are thinking. Involving

employees in a dia logue about the survey results

in feedback meetings or focus group interviews

is nec essary to determine why employees feel

the way they do. The “what” and the “why”

constitute survey feedback. Not until both sets

of information are available — the quantitative

survey results and the qualitative employee-

based clarification of results — is the organization

in a position to know how it can or should

respond.

Techniques for Facilitating Dialogue: The

dialogue most commonly occurs through

management-led feedback ses sions or focus

group interviews led by a facilitator. Both

techniques can be highly ef fective, but

regardless of technique, obtaining clarification is

a necessary precondition to developing on-target

recommendations for improvement.

Stimulating Root Cause Discussion: The

clarifying dialogue can be highly tailored to a

specific set of results or be more generic. In

a general sense, the types of questions that

stimulate the root cause discus sion deal directly

with survey results and can be as simple as asking

the following:

• Why do employees feel this way? What causes

this attitude?

• Whom does the issue affect?

• When [or how often] does this occur?

• What’s the impact on the performance of

the group?

• What are ideas or recommendations for how

the issue can be addressed, fixed or improved?

FIGURE 4

Clarifying Survey Results: What, Why and How

What

Survey results

indicate what

employees are

thinking

Why

Feedback

meetings clarify

why employees feel

the way they do

How

Both are necessary

to determine how

an organization

should respondSurvey

Feedback

Action

Planning

Helping Managers Take Action on Survey Results 7

GENERATING RECOMMENDATIONS

5

Many approaches to generating

recommendations have proven successful.

This step is an important opportunity to involve

employees in the process of translating survey

results into meaningful business outcomes.

Approaches that have proven successful include

using employees to gen erate recommendations

for improvement at the end of clarification

meetings or at a later meeting, or putting

together action planning teams assigned to work

on a given priority.

There are occasions, based on the type of

priority, when managers or management

teams are the ones best suited for generating

recommendations.

Decisions regarding how to tailor the process are

influenced by how unit priorities may overlap or

be integrated with organization-wide priorities,

or the extent to which priorities align with

existing strategic planning or other organization

development activities.

Once recommendations have been generated,

the ideas themselves must be evaluated for

fit, impact and efficacy. Figure 5 presents

considerations in finalizing priorities for action

plans.

In evaluating potential solutions, it is important

to consider how directly aligned the proposed

actions are to the specific survey items or di-

mensions the organization hopes to improve.

A good test to apply is to ask:

“How con fident am I that this action, if

successfully implemented, will improve the

survey results for the targeted items or

dimensions the next time we survey?”

FIGURE 5

Key Considerations in Finalizing Priorities for Action Plans

Establish a limited number of priorities for action planning; consider:

One strength

One to two opportunities for improvement

Strategic plan and/or business direction

Current and/or planned initiatives

Greatest perceived impact

Employee and management buy-in

Helping Managers Take Action on Survey Results 8

DEVELOPING & IMPLEMENTING ACTION PLANS

6

Once there is agreement on the best

recommendations for addressing the action

plan ning priorities, these recommendations must

be converted into actions.

Specific ob jectives should be established that

support each overall action plan.

The most success ful action plans should contain objectives that are:

• Specific and easily understood

• Mea surable, thus allowing progress

to be monitored

• Achievable

• Compatible, that is, contributing to the mission

and goals of the group but in no way working

against other key objectives.

The action planning process, regardless of the

techniques through which it was developed,

needs to specify these components:

• STEPS: What is required to reach the objective?

• TIMING: When will it be accomplished?

• ASSISTANCE NEEDED: What resources or

information are required to meet the objective?

• RESPONSIBILITY: Who will do what?

Once created, action plans will continue to require

time and effort to ensure they are implemented

successfully.

Guidelines for developing and implementing action plans:

• Be as specific as possible in defining the issue.

• Identify a concrete first step, that is, one that

clearly reflects the transi tion from planning

to doing.

• In some cases, it is useful to start with some

easily accomplished objectives. This builds

momentum for the action planning process

and trust among employees that the

organization is serious about using survey

results to effect change.

• Ask, “What could lead this plan to fail, and how

will we know when the situa tion is improved?”

The answer to the second of those two

questions is addressed in step seven.

BEST PRACTICE ADVICE: ACCOUNTABILITY

“Build accountability for action planning down to the individual manager level.

Without accountability, it may not happen.”

Helping Managers Take Action on Survey Results 9

MONITORING PROGRESS

7

To monitor progress, an organization must have

methods of tracking and pro cesses for reporting

and discussing progress. The ul timate method

for tracking progress is through the results of

a subsequent survey. However, depending on

your objectives, there may be other more readily

available measures. For example:

• If actions are undertaken to increase employee

engagement and lower voluntary turn over, then

tracking voluntary turnover rates provides a

measure of progress.

• If ac tions are undertaken to increase customer

loyalty through strengthening the customer

orientation culture of the organization, customer

loyalty and satisfaction ratings pro vide highly

relevant progress measures.

Processes Required: Monitoring progress also

requires processes for reporting and discussing

progress. Action plan progress can be reported

and discussed in these ways:

• An individual performance feedback

process, when individuals are responsible

for implementing the action.

• Unit-level operations reviews, where progress

on other key organizational initiatives and

performance objectives are discussed.

• Regular meetings involving employees, such

as staff or town hall meetings. Although these

employee meetings may seem more like

opportunities for simply reporting progress,

the fact that such a report needs to be made

unleashes energy useful for completing the

action plan.

The final point about communication that needs

to be stressed deals with the occasion when

effective actions are developed and implemented

but not communicated to em ployees.

Effective communication of action plans builds

a true sense of employee involvement and

participation. In organizations where this practice

is implemented, employees have a much more

positive feeling about the effectiveness of survey

feedback as a tool for organization change, and

correspondingly, leaders and managers come to

realize the greatest gains from their investment

in surveys, feedback and organizational

development..

Failure to keep employees informed about

how their input is being used to change

the organization can be, and often is, a

se rious problem in achieving the greatest

gains from organizational development.

BEST PRACTICE ADVICE: COMMUNICATION

“Continually communicating the progress of the action plan is key.

Employees may notice changes in their work environment, but they do not always

tie it back to the feedback they provided on the survey.”

SUMMARYThe primary goal of an employee survey

program is to produce tangible and lasting

organizational improvements. It is easier for

organizations to achieve this goal if they follow

a disciplined survey follow-up process.

Every organization is unique. Survey follow-up

processes should be tailored to fit the

organization. If management commitment

exists, if employees are involved and clarify

why they feel the way they do, if employees

receive communica tion regarding the resultant

action plans and if the survey process is viewed

as ongo ing, then the effectiveness of survey

feedback as a change strategy is virtually

assured.

The results of employee engagement surveys

and survey feedback are mirror images of an

organization’s commitment to the process.

The reflection is always clear, especially for

employees. Figure 6 provides a summary of

the roles of senior management and unit-

level managers in translating survey results

into actions that result in tangible and lasting

improvement.

Guidelines for Supporting the Survey Process

• Regard the survey indexes as key business

metrics

• Hold managers accountable for making

improvements within their organizations

• Cascade survey results and build mechanisms

for upward communication of employee issues

• Ensure an understanding of why employees

feel the way they do before taking corrective

action

• Identify organization-wide initiatives for driving

improvement

• Promote the actions you take as a result of the

survey program

• Communicate regularly how the survey

process aligns with business strategy

Helping Managers Take Action on Survey Results 10

FIGURE 6

Essential Channels for Helping Managers Take Action on Survey Results

Present Results to Senior Management

Identify organization-wide priorities& assign for follow-up

Clarify priorities

Develop organization-wideaction plans

Deliver unit-level reports to managers

Identify priorities & determinefeedback strategy

Conduct feedback meetings topresent results & clarify priorities

Develop unit-level action plans

Implement actionplans

Engage2Excel helps HR organizations create

unique candidate and employee experiences from pre-hire to

retirement. We understand what employees really want, because

we look at the entire employee lifecycle through a scientific lens.

We conduct original surveys, validate best practices from our client

base of 2,700+ organizations and rely on over three decades of

groundbreaking research by our chief scientific officer, Jack Wiley, Ph.D.

Engage2Excel’s industry-leading solutions for recruitment, employee

recognition and engagement surveys are tailored to each client’s

unique business objectives and are designed to help clients increase

competitive advantage and improve bottom-line results.

To learn more, visit engage2excel.com.

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